


we pass from death to life

by lenalufor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmates, astra is mentioned but doesn't appear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 02:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10065884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lenalufor/pseuds/lenalufor
Summary: Soulmate marks were just another way that Rao chose for them, placed them in the universe and pushed them together in the most unlikely of ways.based on the prompt: A and B are in a war where their armors hold a hidden symbol that tells them who their partner/soulmate is. A or B dies and the other finds their broken armor post war.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was meant to be a short drabble piece but i made a huge mistake and created new lore and a universe for this to take place in and it got longer than i meant and went places i didn't expect it to. it got away from me.
> 
> this is the first fic i've posted in years because i tend to write and hoard but i've had a few supergirl fics piling up for months and figured i'd finally post this one. (there's more with this came from, including a potential continuation fix-it type chapter to accompany this fic, if there's interest) 
> 
> i apologize for any errors, it was lightly edited but my writing process is a mess.
> 
> (note: the armor mentioned is worn by humans, and is essentially the suit alex wore, but with a helmet. aliens wear lightweight suits and streamlined helmets without the extra technology, since they have powers
> 
> jran is an honorific similar to "miss"  
> uldif means "forever" in kryptonese)

Alex heaved a sigh as her army gathered around the silent battlefield. Her group was small, a highly skilled tactical team that she had hand picked. There was always the chance of spies, a chance Alex couldn't take with the soldiers closest to Rao's chosen one. Their suits whirred softly as they powered down, exhausted and unsure, looking to their leader. The battle had been won, the prophecy fulfilled, and unease festered under the urge to celebrate. 

Alex wasn't sure of the next step, herself.

As a director of the team and one of their most skilled pilots, she had stepped into the suit several times, known for years that it was her destiny. She had finally accepted it the night she reached the age of fifteen - when she had stayed up well past midnight, hoping beyond hope that a mark would appear on her arm.

It never did. 

Alex knew how futile it was to hope. She'd known since the moment Kara was placed in their care - when the prophecy that had been spoken and written for centuries began to unfold. 

Destiny had a funny way of upheaving Alex's world, of throwing her onto paths she didn't want to be on. The girl's arrival was far from the first of fate's interferences, but it was the shift that she had dreaded her whole life. She had resented the young Kryptonian from the moment she laid eyes on her, hated that her presence put her family in such a dangerous position. 

Eliza had frustratingly reminded her that it wasn't the girl's fault - her arrival on their doorstep was written into their stories long before she was born. They passed the story along for a reason - the weathered tomes long switched for resilient scans on computers, and then for transcribed text on handheld glass screens. The world had progressed, but the story was the same. When the time came, their family would be tasked with protecting the heir to Krypton. 

Alex hadn't been resentful enough to stay angry at Kara for long. Not when she heard the soft sobs from the girl's room a week into her stay with them. She found that the girl was fragile despite her physical strength - it had been clear in the way she held herself, curled into a tight ball on her mattress. Kara had been flung onto destiny's path, herself, her huge role in the prophecy written in the stars, selected by Rao long before she was conceived. 

She'd felt nothing but disdain for the prophetic ways of their deity in those days, when she and Kara were nothing but adolescents wishing that their lives had been normal. Destiny chose who would fulfill the prophecy the same way it chose their career paths, the same way it chose their mates. It left them helpless - but Alex had come to accept that there was no changing it. It was all Rao's will. 

Soulmate marks were just another way that Rao chose for them, placed them in the universe and pushed them together in the most unlikely of ways. 

The prophecies often spoke of Rao's marks, the war that would come from Non's betrayal to the deity's careful selections, his plans to murder the rightful heirs to the throne and marry the twin of the fallen queen. She was to be bonded to another, but Non's promise to spare her niece had convinced her to forego her own destiny. 

The Chosen One's mark was a mystery, one that only the closest heirs were trusted with. 

Rao's teachings also spoke of the soldiers' marks, of their duty to love the Chosen One before their chosen one. Soldiers often died before they met their soulmate - the symbol only appeared inside their armor after they first saw battle, to ensure that they fulfill their duty before pursuing their chosen. 

The prophecy had accounted for everything, had driven the universe to shift and breathe until The Chosen One arrived, to set the future into motion. 

Finally, finally, the battle had come. 

Alex knew that it was inevitable, knew the day would come when the battle was won, when Kara was safe. The crumbled wreckage around her left uncertainty in its wake - the prophecy only said that the girl would take her rightful place once all was said and done. It never spoke of the people that were lost in the war's path, never explained that the heir would feel the hurt of loss.

Kara was a wreck as she knelt in the debris, the tear tracks along her skin clean against her dirt dusted cheeks.

War was a necessity. War would bring peace. War was the only way to ensure that they regain control and circumvent the prophecy. The weathered soldier repeated the truths to herself as she surveyed the scene, careful not to question Rao's plan. 

They couldn't let Kara die, couldn’t let Non take her life and wreak havoc on Krypton. Alex knew it to be true - but it didn’t make it easier to witness Kara's collapse. 

"Where is she? Astra - we need to-" Kara's voice broke, and she turned into the soldier's embrace, muffled her cries in her neck. Alex felt small again, as tiny as she'd felt in the twin bed where she'd held a sobbing orphan years before she'd seen the battlefield. 

They were interrupted by a shadow stepping over them, the crunch of boots jarring. 

"Jran…" Kara's head jerked at the sound - she hadn't heard the word uttered at her since she'd been handed to the Danvers' as a child. A reminder of her life as a royal. 

"General Astra's - her armor…" The voice was somber, English accented and laden with grief. Kara's eyes fell on the bulk of black metal in the Kryptonian's hand, the sleek design of her aunt's armor unmistakable even in its tattered state. 

The emissary bowed their head as they handed the helmet to Kara, a muttered apologetic string of condolences on their lips before they pulled away. Kara's sob caught in her throat as she turned it over in her hands, fingers delicately tracing the embossed crest. A strangled cry left her throat when her fingers came away red, the scent of iron thick. 

Alex pulled her close, held her together as she started to unravel. Her hand grabbed for the dented helmet instinctively when Kara's grip loosened, the exhaustion finally having taken its toll on the girl. She wouldn't forgive herself later if she let it hit the ground, a disrespect to Astra's honorable death on the battlefield. 

Calloused fingers slipped into the helmet, held it carefully to protect it for Kara. Her fingertips scraped over the raised symbols unintentionally - felt the raised pattern there. 

"Uldif…?" Alex whispered the word in disbelief, her eyes glazed over and distant. The symbol was as familiar to her as her own name - the glyphs of Kryptonese she'd studied with Jeremiah before his death. 

Symbols that matched the very ones embedded in her own armor. The very word that pressed to the nape of her skull during every battle. 

Forever.

Alex swallowed down the humorless laugh that sat on her tongue, bitter and acrid. 

Fate was cruel. 

Fate drove this point home time and again, often with an irony that convinced Alex it was sentient enough to enjoy the way it twisted and crushed the creatures it meddled with. 

Alex was stuck in Fate's grip for eternity, she would serve under Rao's light for eternity - and she would live without knowing her mate for eternity. 

Forever. 

Alex choked down the sob that built in her chest and clung to the bloodied metal, knuckles white with effort. She was the strong one. Kara's external form was like steel, but her heart was soft, prone to breaking. Alex knew that she had to carry the loss for herself, she would bear the brunt of it, would hold her through her tears and harden her heart to care for Kara's as she always did. 

Alex refused to cry - the tears on her cheeks were wiped away hastily with her forearm and she held tight to Kara, made herself soft in the right places for her to whimper into. 

Kara had lost the last piece of her family, had lost her planet, had lost everything. 

A soulmate she had never met paled in comparison. 

Alex reminded herself of that fact as they retreated. They made their way to the craft that would carry them home, their battered team in tow. 

The funeral arrangements would be made another day, after a night of hollow respite. 

When she collapsed in her bunk that night, Alex finally allowed herself to cry. 

She reached for the flask beneath her bunk and drank herself into a stupor, mourned for the woman she knew only in Kara's stories and brief communications before the final battle. 

She let out sobs and allowed herself to imagine what could have been, to admit to herself in that vulnerable moment that she had hoped - that some part of her truly believed her path would level in the aftermath of the war. 

She had to come to terms with the reality that it was simply not meant to be - she had no other choice. 

Fate was cruel, but Rao had reasons for that cruelty. Their paths seemed mangled and unclear, but there was a greater plan they could not see. 

Jeremiah had told her so, once upon a time. She could protect her family, protect her people, do her part to fulfill the prophecy. 

Her duty as a soldier was such - just as she expected her team to trust her calls, it was her duty to trust their deity. 

It weighed heavy on her heart, a reality that churned in her gut and bit at her faith - but she would accept it. She would carry the symbol of her fallen soulmate and carry on. 

Alex would sleep, and she would wake, and the world would continue turning. She would lead her team and bury their fallen and make plans for the future. 

The universe was safer, and Kara would take her rightful place on the throne. 

Though Alex would be alone, she would meet her potential as Kara's protector, would work with her and their consultants to rebuild Krypton. 

She would live without a mate by her side, but she would go on nonetheless. 

Alex drained the last of the flask and muttered the mantra she knew well, Rao and the darkness her only witnesses.

"For it is Rao's will - and so it must be."

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at lenalufor if you'd like to yell at me or ask about this particular universe or leave me a prompt? 
> 
> please leave comments if you can, even if they're short, i'd like to post more of what i've got hoarded if there's interest and comments are encouraging.


End file.
